1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for opening and closing a cover of cellular phone in which a cover is opened and closed slidably with respect to a body in forward and backward directions, and in particular to an apparatus for opening and closing a cover of a cellular phone in which a sliding movement of a cover with respect to a body is performed by an elastic force of a spring, and an opening and closing operation of a cover is precisely performed.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a cellular phone includes a cover and a body. The cellular phone is classified into a bar type, a flip type, a folder type, etc. based on an opening and closing method of a cover with respect to a body.
In the bar type cellular phone, a keypad is exposed to the outside, so that the keypad may be easily damaged. In order to overcome the above problem, a flip type cellular phone has been developed. However, in this case, the length of the body is extended, so that it is inconvenient to use it.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of the bar type and flip type cellular phones, a folder type cellular phone has been developed. In this case, a hinge portion, which is a connection portion between the cover and body, may be easily damaged due to a repeated opening and closing operation of the folder when using it.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of the folder type cellular phone, a slide type cellular phone has been developed (shown in FIG. 1). The slide type cellular phone includes a body 1 having a keypad 1a formed of a plurality of key input buttons in an upper side of the body 1, and a cover 2 engaged in such a manner that the cover 2 is slidable in a direction of an upper side of the body 1.
A LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is engaged to an upper side of the cover 2 in such manner that the cover with the LCD is slidably moved in the upper surface of the body by a slide module (not shown) in the forward and backward directions.
In the conventional slide type cellular phone, the slide module has a member for slidably guiding the cover from the body when the cover is slidably moved with respect to the body wherein the member is formed in a rail structure. Therefore, when an external impact is applied to the body, the sliding structure may be easily broken due to its structural characteristic.
In addition, the slide type cellular phone, when opening and closing the cover, a user cannot accurately recognize an opening or closing completion state due to a sliding movement for thereby causing inconvenience.
In the Korean patent laid-open No. 2002-74870, the slide cellular phone using a slide module has been disclosed.
As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional slide module includes a sliding member 410 in which fixtures 412 and 413 adapted to fix a body to a slide module 312 are engaged to a slide module 312, wherein the slide member 410 enables the cover and the body to slide, a support plate 420 fixed to the body for supporting the sliding member 410, and a guide plate 430 adapted to fix the sliding member 410 attached to the support plate 420 and having a plane surface 431 having a guide hole h1 for guiding a sliding movement of the sliding member 410.
Here, the slide member 410 includes a plate spring 411 attached to the support plate 420 by the guide plate 430, the fixtures 412 and 413 vertically passing through the plate spring 411 for fixing the body to the slide module 312 and being distanced from each other, and a protrusion 414 protruded from a certain portion of the plate spring 411 so that a ball 415 is inserted between the plate spring 411 and the support plate 420.
Two holes h4 and h5 are formed in the bottom of the support plate 420 in order for the ball 411 to be lock-engaged. Screw holes are formed in the first and second fixtures 412 and 413 for inserting screws 401 and 402 therein.
In the conventional slide type cellular phone, when a user slides the cover from the body, the ball 415 is selectively lock-engaged to the holes h4 and h5 of the support plate 420, so that opening and closing states are recognized by a click sound.
Therefore, the user can recognize that the sliding operation of the cover is completed, but a certain sound occurs when opening and closing the cover, and an assembling procedure is difficult due to its structural characteristic. In addition, it is impossible to achieve a smooth sliding operation of the cover.